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Touchstone Pictures
Touchstone Pictures was an American film distribution label of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. Touchstone typically released films produced or distributed by Walt Disney Studios with more mature themes and darker tones that are targeted to adult audiences, than those released under the studio's main Walt Disney Pictures banner. As such, Touchstone is not a distinct business operation, and does not exist as a separate company. Established on February 15, 1984 by then-Disney CEO Ron W. Miller as Touchstone Films, Touchstone operated as an active film production division of Walt Disney Studios during the 1980s through the early 2010s, releasing a majority of the studio's PG-13 and R-rated films. In 2009, Disney entered into a five year, thirty picture distribution deal with DreamWorks Pictures by which DreamWorks' productions would be released through the Touchstone banner. Touchstone then distributed DreamWorks' films from 2011 to 2016. Having been mostly inactive since then, It was announced on December 8, 2017 that the label had officially been discontinued by Disney. Background Due to increased public assumption that Disney films were aimed at children and families, films produced by the Walt Disney Productions began to falter at the box office as a result.In late 1979, Disney Productions released The Black Hole, a science-fiction movie that was the studio's first production to receive a PG rating (the company, however, had already distributed via Buena Vista Distribution its first PG-rated film, Take Down almost a year before the release of The Black Hole). Over the next few years, Disney experimented with more PG-rated fare, such as the 1981 film Condorman. With Disney's 1982 slate of PG-rated films—including the horror-mystery The Watcher in the Woods, the thriller drama Night Crossing, and the science-fiction film Tron—the company lost over $27 million. Tron was considered a potential Star Wars-level success film by the film division. In late 1982, Disney vice president of production Tom Wilhite announced that they will produce and release more mature films under a new brand. Wilhite elaborated to the New York Times: "We won't get into horror or exploitive sex, but using a non-Disney name will allow us wider latitude in the maturity of the subject matter and the edge we can add to the humor." One of the first films expected to be released under this new brand included Trenchcoat, a comedy caper starring Margot Kidder and Robert Hays; by the time the film opened in March 1983, no production company credit was included in the released prints. A loss of $33 million was registered by the film division in 1983 with the majority resulting from Something Wicked This Way Comes, a horror-fantasy adaptation of Ray Bradbury's novel. Never Cry Wolf, a 1983 PG release that featured male nudity did well as the studio downplayed the film's association with the Disney brand. Filmography Distribution Highest-grossing films Related units Touchstone Television Touchstone Games External links * *Touchstone Pictures at Movie Insider *List of all films released by Disney regardless of label Category:Touchstone Pictures Category:Disney production studios Category:Film production companies of the United States Category:Entertainment companies based in California Category:Companies based in Burbank, California Category:Entertainment companies established in 1984 Category:1984 establishments in California Category:Entertainment companies disestablished in 2016 Category:2017 disestablishments in California Category:The Walt Disney Studios